90 GENERAL TREATMENT. 



It is likewise no less true than curious, that not only do the ma- 

 ladies of the canine race very nearly resemble those of the human 

 species, in cause, appearance, and effect ; but the similarity is ex- 

 tended to the number and variety of them also, as may be seen by 

 a reference to the nosological catalogue, where many complaints 

 may be found that have no existence among other domestic animals. 

 These affinities will, however, cease to excite wonder when we 

 consider that, in addition to the complexity of structure in dogs, 

 their complete domestication has subjected them to lives wholly ar- 

 tificial, and, in many instances, to habits the most unhealthy. It 

 is not, however, in every case, that these analogies would enable 

 the human practitioner to judge of, or prescribe for, the diseases 

 of the dog : on the contrary, in many instances, the most acute 

 physician and the most able veterinarian would be equally at a loss 

 without a previous acquaintance with canine pathology. Among 

 other sources of difficulty to both, the canine specific diseases may 

 be quoted, which are neither met with in the human or in the or- 

 dinary veterinary practice : another important deviation from the 

 line of both practices arises from the very different effects that 

 some of the remedies employed by both would have when adminis- 

 tered to the dog. Fifteen grains of emetic tartar would probably 

 destroy any dog ; five hundred could be given to a horse without 

 injury. 



Ten grains of calomel, though a full dose, is by no means a 

 destructive one to a human subject; yet I have seen a large 

 pointer killed by this quantity, which had been ordered by an emi- 

 nent surgeon : even three or four grains will often puke violently, 

 and twice the quantity will often fail to purge : twenty times the 

 quantity would fail to do one or the other in the horse. On the 

 other hand, three drachms of aloes which would probably prove 

 fatal to nine human persons out of ten, might be taken by some 

 large dogs with impunity. A dog could take, without any de- 

 rangement, a dose of opium which would destroy a man ; on the 

 contrary, the quantity of nux vomica, or crowfig, that would de- 

 stroy the largest dog, would fail to destroy a man. A very small 



